


spread your wings band of brothers version

by Krystalmatsumiya



Series: angel [1]
Category: Arashi (Band), Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angels, Bonding, Canon Era, Crossover, I'm Bad At Summaries, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22815448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krystalmatsumiya/pseuds/Krystalmatsumiya
Summary: Angels and Humans have lived side by side for over a thousand years, due to the sins of man the grace of the angels starts to diminish and for their safety they are bonded with humans who are pure of heart to restore their grace.after the frst part the story slits into two versions one focusing on modern times and the second on gene and edward in the past
Relationships: Aiba Masaki/Sakurai Sho, Babe Heffron/Eugene Roe, Carwood Lipton/Ronald Speirs, Ninomiya Kazunari/Ohno Satoshi
Series: angel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642306
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Angels and humans had lived together in a stilted harmony for over a thousand years ever since the gates of heaven had opened and the angels had fallen. Their power known to humans as grace had diminished over the years, polluted by the sins of mankind. The only way they could purify their grace was being soul bonded with humans that were pure of heart. The governments of the world had gotten together and determined the rules of the bonds and only the humans and angels who agreed to work in government related jobs were allowed to be bonded and have their grace purified. 

Ninomiya ‘Nino’ Kazunari, archangel second class had just turned 16 and had agreed to join the Japanese army to have his grace purified. He didn’t particularly want to be bonded to somebody that he had never even spoken to before but as an archangel it was expected that he show his willing and the matching process had worked out well for his fellow angel Sakurai Sho who was also an archangel and he was prepared to hope that it would work for him as well. His wings, which had once been a fantastic golden colour had already darkened into a dull bland orange colour and a few feathers had fallen out even on the way to the military building. 

“Ninomiya” A sharp voice called out and Nino looked up and saw a tired looking human standing at the far end of the room with a clipboard in his hands. His hair was brown and thin while there were deep purple shadows which stood out sharply against his pale face. Nino stood up and the action caused a few loose feathers to fall and scattered around his feet. The doctor didn’t say anything, but gave a very tiny smile and kicked the door open with his foot and leaned against it waiting for him. Nino bobbed his had noticing a pair of dog tags around his throat. One decorated with a pair of angel wings indicating that he was one of the bonded pairs. “Roe”

“Huh?” Nino blinked looking away from the throat to look into the doctor’s face. His eyes were dark brown, so dark that they almost seemed to be black. 

“My name is Eugene Roe, most people just call me Doc’ this way” The man said his accent thick and Nino, although he could understand all languages of the earth, couldn’t place it. The hallway he was led down was typical of any hospital in the world with overly polished floors and light grey coloured walls. It smelt of antiseptic and lemons and Nino felt his nose recoiling at the sent. “Somebody went overboard with the cleaning products. My office isn’t so bad, in here”

“Right, where are you from?”

“Louisiana, sit yourself down on the bed” Doc told him throwing his clip board down as he pushed up the sleeves of the white doctor’s coat showing the tattooed runes that all the human halves of the bonded pairs had. Although some of them were still covered Nino saw enough to read the name of his angelic partner. Edward ‘Babe’ Heffron. Nino knew of the angel Babe only a little however, as he had worked with the US government since the 1940’s. It wasn’t uncommon for angels to live for 100’s of years and once bonded humans lived as long as their angel partners. “Okay, your grace is pretty low already, but as you’re an archangel it’s to be expected. Your partner should get you pretty fixed up well”

“Like you did yours?” Nino hummed looking around the room and spying a photo of the doc and a ginger haired angel in a sepia coloured photograph. They were both in old style American uniforms with caps on their heads and smiles on their lips. Nino blinked looking back at the human who was pulling out golden tipped needles, the only things that could draw blood from the veins of angels, along with other supplies. 

“Yeah, I guess been with him for a pretty long time, must be doing something right. How are you feeling? Any dizziness? Sickness? Losses of time?”

“I was sick three days ago, on my 16th birthday...and I lost about three hours yesterday” 

“Okay, nothing to worry about” The doc was gentle and considerate as he slid the needle into his arm, better than the other doctors that had pawed and probed at him when he was young. They had tugged at his wings and injected him with various chemicals trying to prove that he wasn’t as young as he was claiming. He couldn’t say he was surprised, only around 30 angels were ‘born’ every ten years or so and a lot of the older batch of angels could pass themselves off as younger as angels never aged. They were just ‘born’ and then died forever staying the same. “This may sting a little, but yer doing fine” 

“How...How did you end up with your angel?”

“Ah it was different back then, we din’t have the same regulations” The doctor’s voice slipped deeper into an accent as he started to draw blood from the vein in his arm. “I never gave much thought in ter taking on an angel then Heffron was transferred into my unit, rest as they say, is history...Nother little sting, it won’t be so bad...” Nino nodded biting on his tongue as the needle was removed and a cotton swab placed over the wound. It a needless act of kindness as he would just heal now anyway but it was one that Nino appreciated as it made him feel valued. “Gotta check your wings next, yer okay with letting me touch ‘em?”

“Yeah, I guess, you got do it right?” Nino agreed slowly stretching out his tainted wings a few more feathers coming loose as he did so and he sighed feeling the loss. 

“It’s okay, cher, I can give you some of my grace when we’re done, till we get yer a partner sorted, okay?” Doc smiled lowering his voice to a whisper and Nino swallowed his eyes widening as he asked back;

“Is that allowed?”

“Not really, but we don’t gotta tell nobody, okay?” Doc winked and then started his slow and steady examination of his wings carefully moving around all the delicate bones that most human doctors would have pulled in the wrong direction. “Heffron, he gets pissy when I ruffle his feathers wrong, you gotta a preference?” 

“Nope, just...Do what you have to...You’re not hurting”

“That’s good then...You have a bigger bald spot on your left than on yer right, you left-handed?” The doc asked lightly caressing a bald patch and causing Nino to shiver. The touch wasn’t bad but it was strange. At the shiver the doc pulled his hand away. 

“Yeah, for the most part, I can use my right for some things”

“Okay, otherwise yer wings are in pretty good shape”

“The colours gone, my colour was gold...”

“That’ll be fixed up when yer get yer partner, but I’m used to the orange, Heffron’s wings are orange though they were a muddy brown when I met him. Okay, we just gonna get the blood tested but ‘side from lacking grace yer in good shape” Doc finished writing on the clipboard and then cleared his throat saying “Think yer good to go. We’ll contact you in a few days get yer all set up with a partner”

“Thank-you...” Nino muttered surprised when the man reached over and switched off a camera. 

“’Kay, let’s get yer some or yer grace, can’t do much but it will tide yer over till we get yer a partner...” Nino blinked slowly as his hands were taken by the doctors and a low prayer spilled out of his mouth. The man’s eyes had fallen closed and his expression was serious. At first, it didn’t seem like anything was happening and then the runes on the man’s arm started to glow and he felt a tingle like pins and needles breaking out over his skin.


	2. Chapter 2

Roe watched the young angel leave and then let out a long sigh shaking his head slowly from side to side to get rid of the dizziness that came from sharing his grace. With Edward there were no longer any side effects as their bond was so perfectly sealed it was almost as if they were one being split into two bodies. He wasn’t completely sure what came over him to give Grace to the young angel like that. It was against all kinds of polices he mused his eyes going to the photo of him and Edward. It had been taken in the fifties long after the war had ended. They had both remained in service with Eugene going on to study to be a real doctor and not just a medic though he hadn’t really wanted to and he was glad that he no longer treated battle wounds. 

“Gene, you okay?” Edward’s voice flowed through their mental connection concern probing him lightly and Eugene gave a smile pushing back a reassuring pressure through the bond. Edward was over seeing APT on the base like he always did on a Tuesday and although he was only half an hour away Eugene felt a heavy ache in his heart as he missed him. 

“Yeah, just tired I guess, not as young as I once was”

“Still perfect” Edward pushed back and Gene gave a laugh his feelings of Dizziness and fatigue leaving him. He didn’t respond but sent a feeling of genuine happiness before closing up the bond and checking up the name of his next angel. There were only two others today and none for the rest of the week but then came the task of testing the blood and trying to find a suitable match for bonding. They weren’t always in the same country, in fact almost all the ones he had had a month ago were now scattered over the world. In some ways the process was better but in others it was damned frustrating and personally believed that the way he and Edward had come together was the best and most natural way. 

England 1944

Replacements, the company was buzzing with the news, Eugene had had more than one Toccoa man coming and asking him if he believed it. He didn’t, not really, he still couldn’t get over the things that he had seen and the feelings that he had had when losing somebody. In his training to be medic they had warned them not to get attached, to not form friendships with the men, because it was harder to stick your hand inside somebodies gut when you knew them personal like.

Currently he was sitting in the back of the bar the army had put up for them nursing an overly warm British beer that tasted more like cats piss watching Buck Compton and George Luz scam one of the replacements out of a pack of cigarettes. The Replacement was an angel. An angel with ginger hair and muddy brown wings that looked almost like they had been half plucked. 

Eugene still didn’t know how he felt about angels. His mama had said they were wrong, that their being on earth proved that god had abandoned them. His Grandmama, had liked them. She would tell him stories of one of the angels that had saved his granddaddies life, who had taught her the prayer she used when healing the sick and pulling out the badness. Before joining the army had had never seen one up close standing next to Lewis Nixon in formation had been a surprise, though Eugene didn’t know if he counted. Nixon was one of the fallen ones. He had lost all his grace and his wings were leathery instead of being covered in the soft downy feathers that the young replacement and George Luz had. 

Luz was one of the reasons that he thought angels were okay. The young radio operator seemed to want to be friends with everyone and even if he was scamming the replacement now there was a friendliness to it and Eugene knew that in a day or two Heffron would get the chance to win his pack back. Luz’s wings were a deep forest green and were well taken care of his grace shone through him whenever he smiled and everyone liked being around Luz and he soaked up every ones grace without having a specific partner. 

“Gene, yo, Eugene, you okay?” A friendly voice called and Gene looked up to see his fellow medic Ralph Spina coming towards him wearing a woollen jumper and knitted cap. Spina’s face was troubled and Gene found himself scanning him for injuries glad to find not even the trace of one.

“Yeah, just fine, what’s up with you?”

“We’re moving out again, I over heard on my way here, they don’t think we’ll be coming back this time” Spina answered grabbing Eugene’s mostly not drank beer and gulping it down. “It’s gonna be big”

“Yup, seems that way” Gene agreed as Smokey Gordon announced that Lipton had a message for them. The mood of the entire company shifted fear settling over everyone but the replacements. They were nervous, but it was the same kind of nervous that the Toccoa men had had before being over there and seeing the truth. Deciding that he didn’t want to sit around any longer and see that nervous excitement in faces that would probably not make it he got up and made his way to the door. He’d almost made it when there was a thud of a wing against his chest knocking him off his feet with a groan. 

“Doc, you okay man?” Luz shouted as his bum hit the floor “Jeez Heffron, you tryna take out our best medic? No offence Spina, love ya man”

“Sorry, it was an accident, it aint like I tried to hit ‘im” The broad Philadelphian accent rang clearly in his ears as a hand was placed in front of his face. Eugene took it and allowed himself to be helped up. The ginger haired angel gave him a sheepish smile rubbing the back of his neck slowly. “Sorry, Doc”

“No ‘arm done, yer should be a bit more careful” Eugene muttered out in a huff rubbing his back where it had made contact with the floor the expression on the replacements face making him feel as though he had just kicked a puppy.

“Yeah, sorry...Can I get ya a drink? To say sorry”

“Just take care next time, Heffron”

“Babe, people call me Babe”

“Sure, see you around Heffron” Eugene said with a half smile turning and continuing to make his way out of the makeshift bar. As he left heard Luz giving a laugh as he said;

“Good luck with that, the doc don’t call nobody by their nickname. Best guy to have around if you get shot, but don’t expect him to be making friends”

Eugene didn’t hear the replay to that as he was already out on the street looking up at stars. His grandmamas prayer on his lips as he hoped that he could get his men through what was coming next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope this is okay


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Representive only of the HBO portrayal no offence is meant to the real men of easy

Gene sat a little ways away from the other men of the company listening to the banter and smiling ever so slightly whenever they made a comment that he deemed funny and could help. He felt the eyes of the new angel on him every so often and more than once he had caught him with his mouth open as though he wanted to say something. For the most part though he seemed happy enough with Bill. The friendship was surprising to Gene but he could tell that for all his rough attitude Bill had a heart of gold and he was more than happy to share his grace with the Angel with the Philly accent. 

“Doc’, you want a coffee?” Sergeant Lipton asked holding out a tin cup to him and Gene nodded accepting the drink with just a touch of a smile to his lips. The bit of ruined wall he was sitting on wasn’t doing his back any favours but he supposed that he should be glad that there weren’t bombs exploding next to them at the minute. “How are you holding up?”

“Bout as well as any, Serge” Gene shrugged though he knew that it was a lie. He was holding up a lot better than most. Ever since he was small he had sat with his grandmama while she cured people or comforted them in their passing. The kids of the small town had often made jokes that he was a witch and could curse them with a stare. Things that affected other people didn’t affect him in the same way. “You okay, Serge?”

“Bout as well as any, Doc.” Lip chuckled throwing his words back at him easily. Gene very lightly curled his lips into a smile before looking back over to the men when the let out loud laughs mostly directed at something the ginger angel had done. “What do you think of the replacements doc?”

“Not Toccoa men but they are doing their best” Gene shrugged wondering why he was being asked Guarnere was surely the better person. Lip gave a small hum and stomped his feet from side to side before sighing;

“See you later, Doc” 

Gene watched him go and pulled a pack of crumpled cigs from his back pocket. Half of them were snapped with the tobacco falling out in clumps and he sighed getting the best of the worst and trying to sort it out with his fingers ignoring the blood that was embedded into his fingernails. He didn’t know if he would ever be able to get rid of the stains. 

“Hey, Doc, you need a light?” Heffron asked suddenly appearing before him brandishing a zippo a goofy grin on his face. His wings were even patchier now and Gene could see the faint patches of leathery skin underneath. He was almost tempted to reach out and touch it but he resisted popping the cig into his mouth and accepting the light as he leaned back against his wall. 

“Thanks”

“You’re welcome, hey, Doc, why’d you join?”

“Seemed like the right thing to do, even out on the Bayou we know what’s right from what ain’t right” Gene answered knowing it was a half truth but knowing that he didn’t have to explain himself to a damned angel. 

“Me too, for the most part, plus I wanted ta see the world, ya know to fly...” As he spoke Heffron’s wings fluttered as though he was attempting to take off right then and there. He had seen an angel fly exactly once and that had been Luz in basic. The floppy brown haired angel with the bright smile and solid green wings had flown to the top of Currahee. Sobel had had his wings clipped after that and when that hadn’t worked had his twin flight feathers removed. The angel could glide from heights but he would never be able to fly again. 

“Yer got wings, why not use them?” Gene muttered opening one eye and shielding his eyes against the bright sun to look at the angel who, with his orange hair and the sun shining behind it, seemed to have a halo. 

“Impossible without grace, I ain’t been able to fly since I was 15” Heffron’s face was filled with sadness now as he drew on his cig and turned away from him. The tips of his wings brushed over his pants and even through the wool Gene could feel the brush of them. Before he could say anything more shouting went up and there was a blast of an explosion. Martin and Lipton started screaming and Gene found himself being pulled up and almost bodily thrown into the ruined building by the angel before he threw himself over him pressing his face into the dirt. The wings unfurled wrapping over him like a tent while Heffron’s arms wrapped around his middle. The sound of gunfire was next and Gene shifted the best he could with the weight of the other man and pulled out the dirty thread that had once been a part of his Grandmomma’s necklace. 

“Make me an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred, let me sow love, where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light...” He prayed while he waited for the call. It would come eventually he knew that it would and he had to be ready for it. Ignoring the hitched breathing of the angel over him he wound the thread around his fingers continuing the prayer until sure enough a call went out. “Move, give me room” He yelled smacking the angel in the gut with his elbow before scurrying out from the hiding place and running to the sound of the wounded man. 

2020 

Gene let out a breath his knuckles white from where they were pressed onto the gurney. His eyes were unfocused staring at the anatomy chart of an angel and there was tension in the back of his neck. Pushing down the feeling he tried to calm his mind before sighing and pushing back the headache that was threatening in the right side of his head. The door to his office opened unexpectedly and he turned about to berate who ever it was until he saw brown curls and bright blue eyes. A chubby faced little boy dressed in grey slacks and a t-shirt with a captain America on the front ran into the room happily shouting;

“Daddy!”

“Julian, have you been a good boy?” He asked scooping the boy up into his arms and smiling at the frazzled looking angel that followed his son in. Marianne. She was a good solider who often worked with Babe but a babysitter she was not and it showed in her face. Her partner was Julian’s regular nanny but she had developed a cold last minute. 

“’Es!”

“Hmmm, somehow I don’t believe yer” Gene laughed but Marianne shook her head flashing him the best smile she could muster;

“He’s been good, Doc, there was just an incident with some carrots and a nostril but I got it out. Wondering if I could relieve Captain Heffron and take over APT so he could...Maybe...I don’t mind doing it...” Marianne waved her hands helplessly at Julian who seemed happy and content in his arms but Gene knew how difficult his son could be. Even at three years old he was acting more like Babe every day. 

“Yeah, sure, ask Heffron, sure he won’t mind. I only have two left today...”

“I met the archangel, you gave him some of your grace. You know, the runes on your arm are meant to stop you doing that” 

“Yeah, they don’t, they just give me a ‘eadache when I’m doing it. You’ve met archangels before, Heffron’s an archangel”

“Yeah, but...I dunno, he’s just Babe, at least to everyone on the planet who he’s not sleeping with...” 

“Serge, get the ‘ell outta my office, I’ll keep, Julian with me”

“Aye aye, Major Roe, sir!” The sergeant saluted with a grin that reminded Gene a lot of Bill Guarnere before turning and leaving the office with a ruffle of her wings. Julian pulled out his dogtags and played with them happily while Gene picked up another chart and flipped through it slowly his memories once again threatening to consume him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that this is okay


	4. Chapter 4

Gene leaned heavily back onto his feet the soles of his butts pressing into his ass as he rubbed his tired eyes smearing blood over his face but not noticing or not caring. Edward ‘Babe’ Heffron watched the dark-haired man break apart slowly, piece by piece he dissolved taking the pain from the man that he had just treated, his entire body closed in on itself and everything around him and then, as if by magic he shook himself and stood up looking as he always did. His face was calm, peaceful and serene as his dark eyes almost seemed to glow from the inside. Babe was an angel; he had the wings and everything but what he had just felt when he had listened to the prayer on the Doc’s lips was the closest thing to heaven he had ever felt. Here on earth in the middle of a god damn war he had found heaven. 

His wings fluttered gently as he righted himself and he had to admit that he felt better than he had done in years. It was accidental but Gene had just given him some of his Grace. Nervously he licked his lips tasting the bitter tang of dirt and grease and then he stepped forward towards the medic only to have him dart away leaving him in the dust. 

“Oi, kid, what’cha standing around for, get your ass moving, you sitting around for another attack?” Sergeant Martin shouted and Babe nodded looking around for his platoon. He saw Bill walking not too far away talking in a low voice to Joe Toye. Both men looked up at him as he approached and as one, they frowned. 

“What?”

“Dunno, whats up with you? You’re looking…Dunno…Different”

“I feel great” Babe admitted knowing it was due to Gene’s grace. He could still feel it humming through his body. He was pretty sure if he weren’t somewhere so dangerous and would be shot down, he could flap his wings and fly. 

“Din’t say it were bad different, ‘ust different, like yer glowing, like from the inside maybe, don’t know how ter say it, yer sorta look like I do with Fran. Yer get another letter from Doris?” Bill asked and Babe screwed his face up in embarrassment and frustration. Doris. Doris had been his first love, she had broken his young heart when he found out she was just an angel chaser, moved on with another as soon as he wasn’t around anymore wanting the long life that came with bonding with an angel. It wouldn’t work, she din’t have the grace in her to support an angel, not fully, but Bill was never going to forget his ‘Dear Babe’ letter. 

“Nope, Doc Roe…”

“Um, kid, I know yer angel and its different fer youse guys, but you might wanna keep that on the downlow, company men getting frisky…The brass don’t like that” Toye muttered though Babe knew for sure that the rough man who sounded like he ate gravel for breakfast lunch and dinner, was the main man that share his grace with Luz. 

“Din’t mean that! Jeez, get yer minds out the gutter, during the bombing, I was with the Doc he said a prayer and shared his grace with me, on accident but I feel great” He explained but neither Bill or Toye looked comforted or convinced by that explanation and Babe couldn’t understand either of their reaction, it wasn’t as though he had shown any special interest in Doc Roe. Not really. He just wanted to know why he always seemed so distant with everyone and he wanted him to use his god damn nickname. 

“…Luz says the Doc’s grace is like nothing else” Toye muttered eventually the expression on his face resembling a dog eating a wasp as he glared out over the bomb ruined buildings. In the distance Babe could see Roe walking with Luz who, like always was grinning like a loon, his green wings looking as dark as there ODs. A bitter feeling crept into Babe’s heart, hot and fast, at the thought that Gene willingly shared with Luz while ignoring him. Logically he knew that it was because Luz and Gene had known each other for years already, they had been through the same training, shared more than the replacements would understand.

“Doc shared with Luz?”

“Yeah, after Sobel, former CO, clipped his wings, Doc patched him up best he could and they prayed together or summut, anyway, it din’t give him his feathers back but he was lit up like the fourth of July too…Not quite the same way you are though, you got that school boy crush thing going on” Toye smirked his narrow face and dark eyebrows wiggling suggestively and for no reason other than the colour of his hair and his damned pale skin, Babe blushed. 

“Aww, Babe, if yer had to fancy a paratrooper you coulda picked yersen an easier one, Doc is one of the best men around but yer gonna get yer heart broken again, why not try Webster he seems like the romantic sort, he’d get yer flowers or quote poetry” Bill laughed like the whole thing was a cosmic joke and Babe laughed along slapping his honorary brother on the back with his wings causing him to stumble and almost fall flat on his face. “You bloody overgrown pigeon” Bill growled as Babe took off running with the Philly sergeant hot on his heels “I’m gonna fucking pluck you and have wings fer dinner” 

“You’d have to catch me first old man” Babe quipped back the grace buzzing inside of him making him forget for just a moment that he was in the middle of Holland with Germans surrounding them waiting to take a lucky shot at any minute. Soon on of the other Officers would call them into line, would order light and noise discipline but for now they were content to watch and maybe take bets. 

*-*-*-

Gene blinked as Julian patted his face with his dogtags babbling happily about something and nothing. It was a strange thing to have someone else’s memories as clear as his own buzzing and dancing through his head. Sometimes it was nice though, to sit and see things from Babe’s point of view it helped him to see that sometimes he did everything he could, and it just didn’t work. Gene wishes that he could have done that for Babe, when he had lost John Julian in that horrible cold hell, but he hadn’t been there. All he could do was show him his feelings. 

“Dadda” Baby Julian babbled happily and Gene gave a smile. He had questioned Babe’s sanity when he had told him he wanted them to adopt. He had argued that they were both too busy that it wasn’t fair to raise a child when they were always on the move moving from one world base to another. Babe had arranged that though, almost permanent placement in Japan. And then when he had seen the baby that nobody thought was gonna survive, tubes coming out of everywhere without even a name Gene hadn’t argued anymore much less so when Babe had turned around and cooed…

“Julian…Hey my main man!” Babe cried coming into the room with a rush of cool air and Julian William Heffron-Roe bounced happily at the sight of his Papa and Gene felt his heart race inside his chest as he looked him over. He hadn’t changed a day since the war, his hair auburn with red flicks his nose slightly too long and his voice lisping ever so slightly but Gene thought he was more beautiful now than he had been then. 

“Heffron, come and get yo son, I still got work to be getting on with”

“Yup, come on Julian! Come to Papa, let Dadda do ‘is important doctoring” Babe smiled pressing a quick kiss to Gene’s cheek before taking Julian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that this is okay


End file.
